TripAdvisor: York and Leeds named among UK’s best to visit

Leeds and York were today named among the very best places to visit in the UK by the world’s largest travel website.

TripAdvisor drew upon the wealth of reviews and opinions expressed on its pages to rank the top ten destinations and the cities made the grade, with York taking sixth place and Leeds making ninth spot, an improvement on last year when it failed to make the list entirely.

The website points to the Leeds City Museum as a great place to brush up on local history, while many of the site’s users champion the Royal Armouries as a must-see site. Lovely parks and a lively restaurant scene make the city an alluring destination, it says.

Lurene Joseph, chief executive of Leeds and Partners, said: “This is great news for Leeds and the wider city region and fantastic to see that Leeds and Partners’ work in raising the profile of the city is paying dividends.

“Leeds has seen significant investment over recent years and this is clearly having a positive impact on our visitor economy. Our offer is stronger than ever before thanks to developments like the First Direct Arena and Trinity shopping centre, our thriving independent restaurant and bar sector and an outstanding cultural programme. It’s clear why more and more people are visiting Leeds and giving it rave reviews.”

London was number one, Edinburgh second and Torquay third on the UK top ten list, as compiled for TripAdvisor’s Travellers’ Choice Awards. The only other Yorkshire location to make the rankings was York, which pipped Leeds by three places into sixth.

Gary Verity, chief executive of Welcome to Yorkshire, said: “To have York and Leeds rank so highly nationally is great news in the year that will see both cities play crucial roles in our county’s hosting of the famous Tour de France Grand Départ.”